Sunday, March 9, 2014

MARIUS' HIP SURGERY

When I wrote before about our new chi brother, Marius, I told you that he had bad hips. Also, I explained all about an operation called Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO). If you missed that blog entry or have already forgotten what it said, you can read it here.

Marius looked miserable the first night after his surgery.

Mom decided to go ahead and take Marius and his x-rays to visit Dr. Wilson, at the VCA Mission specialty clinic. Dr. Wilson is a surgeon, and he is a very nice man. Mom met him at the Humane Society Telethon last year, and he did a consult on Latifa, our kitty sister who has hip dysplasia. He said that Latifa didn't need surgery, which was good news.

Anyway, Dr. Wilson looked at Marius' x-rays, and he examined Marius, and he said he thought that FHO surgery should be done pretty soon, on both hips at the same time. He gave Mom an itemized estimate of what it would probably cost to do the operation, and it came to more than $2000, which did not surprise Mom because she is all the time having to pay big vet bills.

Luckily, Marius still has a good appetite.

Anyway, Marius ended up having the surgery on Wednesday. After it was over, Dr. Wilson called Mom and said it went well, but that Marius' hips were "horrible." He said the hips were even worse than he thought they would be when he looked at the x-rays. In fact, they were some of the most awful hips he had ever seen. My opinion is that Marius should get some kind of prize because of being so special, or at least he should get written up in a medical journal. But Dr. Wilson did not mention writing an article or awarding a prize. He did give Mom a 15% discount on the bill, but it still came to $2450.50.

Marius stayed overnight in the hospital, and then Mom picked him up on Thursday, after she got finished working at the art gallery. Marius did not feel very good when he came home. He just mostly lay around in the nice, soft bed Mom fixed for him inside a crate. He ate his supper, though, which was a good thing because there was pain medicine mixed in with his food, and also antibiotics.

Marius has to wear the Cone of Shame
so he won't chew on his stitches.

At bedtime, Mom carried Marius upstairs, and he slept in a crate beside Mom's bed. He started crying in the middle of the night, but after Mom talked to him a little bit, he was quiet again, and we all went back to sleep.

It seems like every day Marius is feeling a little better. Mom gets him out of his crate to totter around the house until he finds a place to pee or poop. When he first gets up, Marius can't seem to use his back legs at all, and they just cross over each other. But Mom keeps straightening them out, and after a little while, Marius gets started walking, and he does pretty well. I think it's funny to watch him try to walk, though, and so does Tristan. Mom says we shouldn't laugh because the two of us have luxating patellas, and we will probably have to have knee surgery someday -- especially Tristan, and especially on his left knee. But Mom hopes she can get most of Marius' bills paid off before somebody else needs to have surgery.

Marius has to find the perfect spot before he can pee.

In a couple of weeks, Marius will get his stitches out, and after that, he will have to have physical therapy. Dr. Wilson thinks Marius will need to do that for about six weeks, but Mom hopes it won't have to be for that long.

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About Me

I am a charming chihuahua named Dorrie. This blog was started by my basenji sister, Piper, but she went to the Rainbow Bridge. Now I'm stuck with writing the blog, but so far, it's been fun. I have two crazy chi brothers named Tristan and Marius. We live with five cats and with Mom, who is a human.